When Obedience Looks Like Foolishness

In the 2016 film Hacksaw Ridge, Private Desmond Doss stands before a military tribunal for refusing to carry a rifle. His fellow soldiers mock him. His commanding officers try to break him. Everyone assumes he is a coward. But Doss is not disobeying the Army out of weakness — he is obeying God out of conviction. As a Seventh-day Adventist and conscientious objector, he believes the Lord has called him to save life, not take it. He will serve as a combat medic, but he will not touch a weapon.

The miracle comes at the Battle of Okinawa. After his unit is driven back down a sheer cliff, Doss stays alone on the ridge — surrounded by enemy fire and wounded men. One by one, he drags them to the edge and lowers them to safety on a rope. Through the long night, his prayer is breathtakingly simple: "Lord, help me get one more." By morning, he has rescued seventy-five soldiers.

Obedience to God rarely makes sense to the world around us. It did not make sense to Doss's platoon, and it will not always make sense to our neighbors, our coworkers, or even our families. But the Almighty does not ask us to understand the full picture. He asks us to be faithful in the next step.

The harvest of obedience is almost never visible at the moment of surrender. But stay on the ridge. Keep lowering the rope. Trust the One who called you there.